My experience with everyone's favorite seller

I'm being sarcastic with the favorite seller part, seeing how he is well-known for price-wise marking up his coins into the stratosphere, even with the 70% or so discount he puts on a lot of them. After reading that another member here sent him an offer and got a nice coin for a good price, I decided to do an experiment of my own. I found two very scarce types for Honorius that I am partial to (the VRBS ROMA FELIX), which were misattributed, in ok shape, and at $15 and $18 w/free shipping. I wasn't going to pay that much for them, and I wanted to see if I myself could really successfully low-ball him, so I sent offers at a third of the asking prices. My offer of $6 for the $18 coin was accepted but the $5.50 for the $15 coin wasn't (strangely enough...). It arrived today and I am actually satisfied with the coin, better in hand no doubt.

Along with the coin, he sent a business card with a photo of himself (not sure if its the lighting or something, but his face kind of weirds me out).
Plus he sent this "certificate of authenticity" with his signature, the coin's (wrong) attribution, and portion of Wiki's article on Honorius. This isn't an angry rant or anything, but IMO if you are going to present info on the history behind the coin, at least shorten it and put it in your own words instead of ripping it off of Wiki. Or at the very least a few quotes from a site that isn't Wiki. Oh well, his ink and paper. I'll make it useful and give it my little brother to read.

Also, he subscribes you to his emailing list when you purchase a coin from him, pointing you to his main selling site. I unsubscribed and marked his emails as spam.

Pros:
Decent shipping time
Takes really low-ball offers (not all the time though)
Coins looks better in hand (at least for me)

Cons:
The spam and subscribing thing
Lots of overpriced junk (gotta wade through a bit to find even decent stuff)
Cert. of Authenticity (his coins seem authentic but his signature doesn't prove that of course)

All right service, but basically, never pay asking price on anything. From now on I'll look a bit through his stock when I am bored and browsing but just for cheapo, scarce/rare coins.

Here's the Honorius I bought btw (for this type, its condition is pretty good):



In hand (the surfaces are a bit darker in hand but the photos are close enough):

 

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Never bought from that dealer, rarely do I see anything that even makes me wanna try him out.

Still good for you, and your photo is much nicer then the first one.

 

Like Mat, I've never bought from him and generally skip over his listings. Your image of the coin is much better than the first image. The coin is worth every bit of $6. Congrats.

 

I like the coin. I actually have no idea which seller you are talking about I usually don't go through buy it now listings.

I always dislike sellers who double the price they want for the coin and permanently have a 'sale' to entice buyers in.

 

Thanks guys for reading my write-up and glad you all like my coin and photos.

Trust me, look though the cheaper buy it nows and you will most likely guess which are his. All I'll say is that he's located in NY.

 

You may as well name him, you've all but done it anyway? Is it York coins?

 

Is it the guy who has a self-proclaimed high rating but low price? If so, I'm always amazed at just how high his initial listing prices are, even with his artificial steep 'discounts' figured in.

Haven't tried that seller yet, but if it's the seller I'm thinking about, then paying 20-30% of his listed BIN prices would seem to be fair.

He's definitely got lots of inventory and some nice coins. Sometimes I just feel dirty even looking at his listings though.

 

Yup. That's the guy.

 

Well, all the smoke screens aside, that's a mighty nice example of the Honorius type. The only thing that's really held me back from making any offers is the condition of the coins I was interested in, which I determined from his photos. I would not have bought the coin with his pic, but I would have with yours.

 

That's him alright, or as I like to call him "highrating highprice"

It was definitely a bit of a gamble for me, but not a costly one if I wasn't satisfied. Luckily I came out with a coin I'm glad to have in my collection. Not saying I'll be a regular customer though , just saying he will be a bit more on my radar in the future, now that I know I can lowball him with some chance of success if I find something I want.

 

It's all part of the game. Thanks for sharing your "intel".

"Know thy enemy and a thousand time shalt thou be victorious." Sun Tzu... or perhaps RaceBannon? ca 2014

 

This guy has a couple of tesserae I'd love to add to my collection. I have no idea how he got a hold of them, but even with a 75% discount, his prices are higher than I've ever paid.

 

Make him an offer of a price you would normally pay (or less). It can't hurt.

 

yeah, have to admit that was well worth 6 bucks....I'd pay that for sure.


i offer this certificate with every coin i sell...

 

The seller doesn't like my offers they weren't even ridiculously low or anything.

 

Maybe he's in a bad mood?

 

Maybe. He counter-offered my offer with a $240 price. I felt sad.

 

Seems like its hit or miss with him. I had my other offer rejected. Why? I have no idea. Guess he didn't want an extra $5.50...

 

Some reason his facebook page appeared on "do I know him" portion on my facebook page. Couldnt help but chuckle at the graphics.

https://www.facebook.com/ilyazlobin123

 

This guy is all over youtube. Just another young entrepreneur who came to the biggest capitalist market in the world trying to make a buck. I've got to respect that.

He actually has some decent inventory. I think I'm going to make him an offer based on some of your posts. I'll report back.